LeBron James absolutely ruined Tiago Splitter on an amazing block during the fourth quarter of Game 2 of the NBA Finals between the Miami Heat and San Antonio Spurs on Sunday.
The Spurs had the ball with the shot clock winding down and ran a pick and roll between Tony Parker and Splitter. Parker passed to Splitter, who was going down the lane, and it looked like Splitter would have a wide open dunk. But LeBron left Kawhi Leonard down low and came out of nowhere to swat Splitter’s dunk like a volleyball player stuffing an opponent at the net. It was absolutely a thing of beauty, and one of those plays that will remain on LeBron’s highlight reel forever.
LeBron followed up the block by assisting on a Ray Allen three, and then by stealing the ball and dunking ferociously on a fastbreak to force the Spurs into a timeout.
What was LeBron thinking on that play?
“Protect the rim,” LeBron told ABC’s Doris Burke. “Tony hit him with a great pocket pass, and Splitter had a runway to the rim. I was jut like, ‘Hey, just make a play. You haven’t done much offensively, so just try to change the game some way defensively. I was happy I was able to get a good block.”
LeBron also had a block on Tim Duncan during the first quarter that was impressive, but nowhere near as amazing as the Splitter block:
